CityVille scores Zynga Social Center; send return gifts in one click

While we're not sure anything was particularly wrong with with the Zynga Message Center, sure, we'll take an update. The developer has unveiled the Zynga Social Center (ZSC), a new-and-improved version of the previous gifting and help request overlay. Still accessed by pressing the white envelope in the far upper right corner of your screen, the new ZSC certainly looks smoother than the previous edition of the feature. However, there are two key improvements beyond just looks.

First, multiple instances of the same gift received will be lumped into a single notification and a single button to accept all of them. For instance, if 15 of your friends send you Zoning Permits in CityVille, then just one notification will appear in your feed, and you'll only need to press one button to accept all 15, though it takes a bit longer to process with more requests.

Second and most importantly, however, is one-click gifting. When a friend sends you a gift, and you're given the option to return the favor, a small check box will appear--already checked--that will allow you to skip the normal Facebook pop-up that appears when sending future gifts back. Keep in mind, this is done on a friend-by-friend basis. It's kind of like one-click sharing, but far less controversial.

Another minor change is that items that players can no longer accept will stay in the ZSC until players can accept them. For example, if you attempt to accept a +3 Energy item from a friend, but have too much of the item in your inventory, the ZSC will remember that and keep that +3 Energy right where you left it rather than delete it. Unfortunately, Zynga introduced the feature through CityVille, and it seems to only be available in that game at the moment. Though, I would expect Zynga's other games to enjoy the update soon enough.